We all know about the blue states and red states. But there are also red countries. On the Bush administration’s color coded chart, red represents countries who are withdrawing their troops from the Iraq coalition.

Many of these countries only have a handful of troops or civilian workers in the region (in fact, no other country has more than 7,500 troops in Iraq and many coalition members are represented in the low hundreds), so in terms of actual numbers, the increasing number of departures probably doesn’t mean much.

But in terms of symbolism, it means a whole lot. Whatever one’s position was when it came to the invasion of Iraq, the departure of coalition troops now (often as a direct response to terrorist threats and/or acts) sends a strong message to the world and to Iraqis, and it sends an even stronger message to those who commit acts of terror.

Davenetics by Dave Pell

Welcome to Dave Pell's Davenetics, the Official Blog of the Next Five Minutes. Dave is an old school blogger. It all started with Davenetics, but then grew into a suite of blogs and brands including Electablog (politics) and NextDraft (newsletter). These days, Dave almost all of his blogging at Tweetage Wasteland, a look at the realtime web that is syndicated by Forbes, NPR, Gizmodo and others. Dave is also the founder of Rollyo and Addictomatic, an investor/adviser for several start-ups, and the husband of Gina Pell.